UN Releases Report on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Libya (December 23, 2014) [1]
On December 23, 2014, the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) released a joint report [3] entitled, “Update on Violations of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law During the Ongoing Violence in Libya” (the Report). Based on evidence gathered between September and mid-December 2014, the Report found that widespread international human rights “abuses persist, causing hundreds of deaths, mass displacement and a humanitarian crisis in many areas [of Libya].” According to a news article [4], the Report “documents indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, the abduction of civilians, torture, and reports of executions, as well as deliberate destruction of property, among other serious . . . violations of international law.” In a press release [5] accompanying the Report’s publication, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein warned all parties involved in the violence that they remain “criminally liable under international law if [they] commit or order the commission of grave human rights abuses or fail to take reasonable and necessary measures to prevent or punish their commission.” High Commissioner Zeid also stated in the press release that the International Criminal Court is currently investigating the continuing conflict in Libya.